I’m a bit of a weather nut, and I primarily get most of my forecast needs from the excellent My-Cast for iPhone. But sometimes I am using my iPad and want to check the hourly or daily forecast, yet the iPad doesn’t even come with a built-in weather app.
I’ve tried a few different apps, and my current favorite is the newly released Magical Weather by Sophiestication. Magical Weather is a gorgeous weather station providing the essentials for current weather at a glance. You can check weekly forecasts by sliding a panel up, and hourly by pulling that panels out from the side. There’s also beautiful animations that reflect the current conditions.
It’s a buck in the App Store for a limited time. Check it out.
Media coverage is sensationalizing an open source tool, iPhoneTracker, which maps out location data points collected by a 3G-capable iOS device. Be sure to read their FAQ, which isn't so sensational.
Using this app to look at my data, it definitely pings off cell towers, not GPS. With this in mind, I posit that Apple may have the iPhone (and 3G iPad) keep track of cell towers to aid in speeding up its Assisted-GPS, which uses cell towers to triangulate a smaller search area for the GPS satellite. The device would be able to provide location results to the user much more quickly if it had an index of nearby towers.
This would also explain why this data is included in the iPhone backup. It would be inefficient to rebuild the database from scratch if you had to restore your phone.
And to pre-empt the argument of why doesn't Apple include a pre-made database:
Databases take up drive space. The method of logging towers near you makes the data relevant to you, and excludes a lot data that would be largely useless to you.
Addendum:Of course this still results in a database that takes up space, but it wouldn't be nearly as large. The point is that you have a database of relevant data.
Also, Apple doesn't have to maintain updates to carrier databases when new towers are added. Instead, your iPhone just maps a new nearby tower itself.
Lastly, I haven't seen anyone provide any evidence that this data is transmitted back to Apple. So if this data only exists on your device and its backup file, what's the big deal? Especially since it is probably saving you time when you willingly tell the world where you are via geo-tagged tweets, Foursquare check-ins, and Instagram updates. Never mind that the Camera app geo-tags every photo you take in an instant.
Apparently a Wi-Fi iPad is fed GPS data when tethered to an iPhone 4 using Personal Hotspot. Chalk that up as one more reason why I am never going to buy a 3G iPad.
I've spent the weekend gathering my thoughts and impressions of the iPad 2 compared to the original iPad, and I have to say, I'm very impressed with the iPad 2.
Speed
The iPad 2 feels considerably faster than the original iPad. To me, this is most noticeable in iBooks. When opening a large, image-heavy eBook on the original iPad, it would take a while to load, and turning the pages would often be a bit choppy. On the iPad 2 loading is fast and page turning is super smooth and responsive.
Apps load much faster, and more apps stay in memory for multitasking. Also, Safari keeps all 9 tabs cached, whereas the original iPad kept 3-4 of the 9 tabs cached, needing a refresh of the page otherwise.
I don't have any games that would challenge the 9x faster graphics, so I can comment on that aspect.
I find the iPad 2 to be much easier to hold than the original iPad. I attribute this mostly to the thinness rather than the iPad 2 being 0.2 lbs. lighter than the original iPad, even though I'm sure that helps. The original iPad had a curved back, which I always had a hard time finding the sweet spot for holding it in a balanced manner.
The iPad 2 curves only on the edges, and has a flat back. Combined with the thinness, holding the iPad 2 is akin to holding a notepad (though, obviously, heavier than a notepad). The iPad 2 also has two more advantages over the original iPad that I have noticed over the past couple days. The first is that the iPad 2 feels more balanced than the original. I suspect the internal components are arranged specifically for this (I haven't compared any teardowns between the two). Second, the aluminum back, although it looks like the exact same finish, feels different. The original iPad's finish felt almost slippery, and made the iPad hard to casually hold. The iPad 2 definitely feels slightly, and I mean slightly, rougher. But this slight difference makes all the difference. I find the iPad 2 to be a night and day difference of being able to hold the device comfortably.
Screen
It is exactly the same. I wasn't disappointed that the iPad 2 didn't have a retina display, as that seems impossible with current technology whilst keeping the price the same. I am, however, a little disappointed that the iPad 2 doesn't have the LCD bonded to the glass like the iPhone 4. Hence, in the right lighting, a little bit of shadowing can occur at the edge of the screen because the bezel sits a few millimeters above the screen.
I really would have loved having the screen bonded to the glass to give that effect of the pixels being painted on the glass like the iPhone 4.
Cameras
The cameras are indeed sucky resolution, but perfectly fine for FaceTime, which is their intent. My kid absolutely loves Photo Booth.
Cover
The Smart Cover is probably one of my favorite things about the iPad 2. I abhorred the look and feel of Apple's case for the original iPad (but I loved its function for inclining the iPad for typing, and propping it up for viewing video). The Smart cover replicates the incline for typing and the propping for viewing video, all while dismissing the things I hated: added thickness & weight. The Smart Cover is barely there. And it is wonderful.
I also love how the Smart Cover locks the iPad 2's screen when closed, and instantly wakes the device when opened. It is also easy to remove, unlike the original iPad's case.
If you're buying an iPad without a Smart Cover (or a similar third party case, when those arrive), then you are doing it wrong.
The iPad 2, in my book, is a true second generation device. Not because of any one thing (except maybe the case), but a sum of all the little things. After only a couple days, I can say without a doubt, that I like the iPad 2 far more than the original iPad.
By now I'm sure you've heard a lot about the new iPad 2. I wanted to take a couple days to really get my thoughts in order on it. It's nice to see that the specs were bumped a bit, with the dual-core A5 processor and 9x faster graphics. I presume the RAM has been bumped from 256 MB to at least 512 MB, if not 1 GB. But are specs all that we care about?
The Post-PC Era
Apple is labeling the iPad as a "Post-PC Device." With PCs (as a whole, Mac, Windows, etc) we have always focused on how fast the processor is, how much RAM, and countless other things to measure by. But I tell you what, the only people I know who care about those things are geeks like me. My wife, my parents, my sisters- and brothers-in-law, and a fair number of my friends don't care about those things because they don't even truly understand what all that stuff means.
What normal folks really care about are whether something is easy to use, reliable, and, most importantly, how fast it feels.
By all rights and means, the first iPad is a slouch compared to my MacBook Pro. Heck, you might even say it's a slouch compared to the iBook G4 that I used through most of college. But it feels faster. Everything is absolutely fine-tuned, and absolutely, utterly responsive. And the iPad 2 will take that even further.
Here is my big "the iPad is the future" story:
My grandmother is absolutely afraid of touching a computer. She will not touch my grandfather's Mac out of fear of breaking something. For someone who has lived since before computers were even invented, and has seen them evolve before her eyes, she is afraid of them. Only recently has she started to use an old iMac my grandpa picked up, but she really only uses it for little card games.
Shortly after I got my iPad, my grandparents visited, and I was excited to show off my new device. I handed it to Grandma first.
"What is this?" she asked?
"It's an iPad. I think this is the future of computers." I replied.
She tried to hand it back immediately. I assured her she couldn't mess it up. She stared at it a moment, then pressed the home button. The screen lit up, and prompted her to slide the unlock bar. She did so. I told her to open iBooks.
Then, all on her own, without me explaining anything, she tapped on Winnie-the-Pooh. She began reading, and instinctively dragged her finger on the edge of the "page" and "flipped" it. All this without me telling her how to use it. And then something interesting happened: after reading for a few moments, I observed my grandmother forget that she was holding a slab of aluminum and glass — because she lightly licked the tip of her finger before turning the page. The iPad became a book to her.
When she was finished, she inquired how to close iBooks, but before I could answer, she figured it out by pressing the home button. She said it just made sense since it was the only thing on the front.
People like my grandmother are who the iPad is really made for. The future of computing is dissolving the perception of hardware, and letting the software tell a story and establish a relationship with the user.
One of the best apps for that is FaceTime.
FaceTime
FaceTime has been on the iPhone 4, latest iPod touch, and Macs for the better part of a year now. I know a lot of folks who don't really get FaceTime. Granted, a lot of those people I know don't have kids, and kids make FaceTime invaluable.
My family uses FaceTime at least once a week. My wife, son, & I live quite a way everybody in our family. We use FaceTime to talk with our parents, with my sister-in-law, and each other when one of us has to be away. Now, I think we could get by with audio calls to the folks if we didn't have a son. FaceTime would be used less frequently. But kids grow up fast, and grandparents love to see their grandkids. And my wife's youngest sister is halfway across the country, we rarely see her. So FaceTime is great.
And hey, my mom is psyched to have an iPad with FaceTime.
Smart Covers
The one thing that really captures my attention with the iPad 2 is the case. It attaches magnetically, and puts the iPad to sleep when the cover is closed, and wakes it when pulled away. It just seems like it was done right. I have Apple's case for the first iPad, and I mostly like it. That said, the reasons why I like it are the same reasons I'd like a Smart Cover for the iPad 2. I like that it can set the iPad at an incline for typing and that it can prop it up as a view screen.
But the parts I don't like are what a Smart Cover fixes. The first iPad case makes the iPad noticeably thicker, and it is difficult to remove or put on. The Smart Cover fixes those two gripes. See for yourself below.
Overall, the iPad 2 is a small update that means big things for the future. The goal for this iteration is focused on being thinner, lighter, faster, and connecting people. If you don't believe the kind of impact the iPad can have on people's lives, watch the video about the first year of the iPad. The last few moments will grab your heart.
So: new developer preview of Lion, new FaceTime app for Mac, and an all-new lineup of MacBook Pros — and none of these things warranted a spot in next week’s event.
The Loop just posted an invite from Apple for an iPad event in one week, on March 2nd. If I had to guess (and I don't really think I have to), we'll see an announcement of the second generation iPad, and likely the release of iOS 4.3, which has been in beta for the past month and a half or so.
As a left-field guess, maybe we'll get a preview of iOS 5, though Apple usually previews that as a separate event, however, the timeframe would fit judging from past preview events.
Today Squarespace announced the release of their long awaited iPad app. Squarespace is, of course, the host and CMS of this fine site. Needless to say, I’ve been waiting for an iPad app from them for some time. Naturally, I am typing this post on my iPad.
Overall, the app is very good. I’ve encountered (and reported) a couple bugs, but that is to be expected. Overall, the app is a reflowed carbon copy of the iPhone app, which surprises me that it is a separate app instead of a universal app. The main difference is the editor on the iPad is far superior (read: usable).
The editor supports undo, redo, hyperlinking, bold, italics, underline, block quote, and excerpts. It also features a marked improvement to the interface that allows you to assign categories, tags, and the publish date.
I can definitely see using the iPad to publish a post in a pinch, but most of the time I think I’ll stick with composing on my Mac.
Find my iPhone is a feature of Apple MobileMe service. MobileMe is a $99 per year subscription service that provides syncing of your calendars, contacts, & bookmarks across your computers and iOS devices, along with an email account, iDisk server storage, photo galleries, and Find my Iphone (or iPod touch or iPad). When Find my iPhone was added as a feature of MobileMe, I thought (and still think) it is a great part of the service.
Say your iPhone slips out of your pocket while you’re sitting at a coffee shop. You leave, and a while later, you reach for your iPhone and have a near heart attack. Never fear, you can hop onto me.com or the Find my iPhone app from another device (say, your spouse’s or your friend’s) and locate your iPhone on a map. From there, you can passcode lock the screen, send a custom message with an alert sound that overrides the volume or mute switch, or, in extreme circumstances, remote wipe the device. This works for iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads.
(It should be noted that if you wipe the device, you won’t be able to track it again. Wiping resets everything to factory condition).
Well, today Apple updated the Find my iPhone app and is allowing any iPhone 4, 4th-Generation iPod touch, or iPad to use that portion of MobileMe for free. Download the app to sign up for an account.
There is a little trick here if you have an older device. Just register your Apple ID on someone else’s current generation device, then delete your info from their device. Once you have registered on a supported device, you can then activate Find my iPhone on any of your older devices.
I’d really like to see Apple open this up for all of their iOS device users, but I understand their desire to encourage folks toward newer devices. Apple is a business, after all.
I recommend that everyone take advantage of the Find my iPhone program. It could save you a lot of panic and headache if you were to ever lose your device.
For iPhone and iPod touch owners, the two keystone features are AirPrint and AirPlay. Other than that, there are many little tweaks and polish to iOS.
The real news surrounding the 4.2 update is the ipad. Back when the iPad was released, iOS 4 hadn’t been announced yet. Instead, the iPad received its own special branch of iOS 3 — 3.2 to be exact. So iOS 4.2 is the iPad’s first encounter with the features its smaller sized siblings have been enjoying for months. To name a few: multitasking, folders, Game Center, & Mail improvements. For the first time, the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad are on the same iOS.
iPad
Multitasking
Multitasking has been enjoyed by iPhone and iPod touch users for a while, and any of your universal apps that have multitasking support will work automatically with multitasking after the update. Standalone iPad apps will need updates to work with the new feature, and those have been trickling into the App Store steadily over the past week or so.
Multitasking works as advertised, just like on the iPhone and iPod touch. The only hindrance I can foresee being a problem for heavy multitaskers is running up against the iPad’s limited 256 MB of memory. It really hasn’t been much of a problem for me (I’ve had 4.2.1 since the weekend, so I’ve had time to play). It would be nice if the next iPad hardware had at least 512 MB of memory (1 GB would be even better).
Folders
Folders is the feature I’ve been wanting on the iPad since I bought my iPhone 4. I’ve easily consolidated my homescreen count from five to two, which is much nicer. Once again, if you’ve used folders on iOS 4 before, you’ve seen this already. It’s just nice to have congruency across my iPhone and iPad.
Game Center
Game Center is Apple’s built-in achievements, leader board, and multiplayer platform for iOS. Now it is on the iPad. Like some of the other iPad apps, Game Center has an expanded user interface to accommodate the larger screen size.
Mail
Hallelujah, Mail now has unified inbox and threaded messages! These features are things I’m amazed weren’t shipped with iOS 1.0, but it’s good to have them. I’ve loved them on the iPhone, and it’s great to have them on the iPad, especially since the iPad is a great experience for dealing with an unruly inbox.
iPhone and iPod touch
The changes that are new to the iPhone and iPod touch are less noticeable. There are new sounds for SMS/MMS alerts to choose from. They honestly sound as if Apple hired a composer from Looney Toons. There are new parental controls, including disabling some of Game Center and one I about did a backflip over — disbaling the deletion of apps. My son just loves to delete all the toddler games from his iPod touch on a long roadtrip. Trust me, I could high five the Apple employee that added this.
Also, the birthday calendar now sports a wrapped gift icon, helping to make someone’s special day stand out a little more against your busy schedule. Voice Memos got a new icon, somehow even uglier than before.
Another nice feature is font choices in the Notes app. Marker Felt is still there, but is now joined by Chalkboard and the ever-wonderful Helvetica.
AirPrint and AirPlay
AirPrint allows your iOS device to print wirelessly. When the feature was announced, it was revealed that it would work without additional setup with select HP printers, and then with a little extra work, your existing printer that is shared with your Mac or PC. Unfortunately, only the former found its way to the release. It is unknown if the latter is delayed temporarily or indefinitely.
AirPlay, on the other hand, is something I am extremely excited for. AirPlay allows you to stream audio, video, or photo content to your TV from an iOS device via Apple TV, or audio to AirPlay-compatible third-party speakers. It works today with the new Apple TV, and third party speakers, such as the iHome iW1, will be available around the holidays. I definitely plan on putting a couple iW1’s around the house.
That’s about all that is worth mentioning. If you find any other gems in the release, drop a note in the comments.
Update on 2010-11-23 05:31 by Chris De Jabet
iLounge wrote up an exhaustive overview of pretty much every change in iOS 4.2.1. As usual, their Instant Expert article is extremely well done.
